Airline plans new nonstop flights from Little Rock to Orlando

The service will be offered on Mondays and Fridays on a 186-seat Airbus A320 between Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field and Orlando International Airport. No end date for the service was specified by the airline.

The flights between the two cities will be the fourth new service added at the state's largest airport in 2018 as it enjoys a surge in passenger traffic.

Frontier resumed operating in Little Rock on March 1 after a four-year hiatus, with three flights per week between Little Rock and Denver. The carrier added a fourth flight in April.

American Airlines began offering nonstop service to Washington, D.C., in April and Via Airlines, a Florida-based budget carrier, began service between Little Rock and Austin, Texas, in May.

Passenger traffic was up more than 3.4 percent, to more than 1.2 million passengers, through July, the latest figures available. Passenger traffic rose 10 percent last month compared with August 2017, Clinton National said in a news release.

-- Noel Oman

Walmart expanding grocery-pickup tests

Walmart Inc. is testing a new and bigger version of an automated grocery-pickup system for customers who place orders online. This one can serve up to five customers at a time, while an earlier version can only serve two.

Attached to a Walmart Supercenter in Sherman, Texas, the latest version includes a building that measures 11 feet by 127 feet. It operates much like an oversized vending machine. Customers scan barcodes from their "order ready" email notifications and, in less than a minute, their bagged groceries appear.

There's no fee to use the service, but it's only available for orders of $30 or more.

Walmart started testing its first automated grocery system in June 2017 in Warr Acres, Okla. That unit measures 20 feet by 80 feet. Both have freezers and refrigeration to keep groceries fresh.

Walmart offers online grocery pickup at many locations nationwide, but those require employees to carry orders to customers' cars.

-- Serenah McKay

Losing 2.57, index closes day at 462.72

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 2.57 to 462.72 Wednesday.

"Equities rallied mid-morning on reports of potential new trade discussions with China," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.